Sunday, November 25, 2012
Annual Peace Candle celebration includes tuba players, ice sculptures, and Easton's 100-year-old historian.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Tom Coombe
-
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Hundreds of people filled Easton's Centre Square Friday night for the annual Peace Candle lighting. The actual lighting is just a small part of the event, which also included a mummers band, ice sculptors, a petting zoo, horse-drawn carriage rides, and the Easton debut of TubaChristmas. (The name only tells part of the story, as the group plays Christmas tunes on a variety of brass instruments, including the tuba.) This year, the candle was lit by Easton resident Cindy Lytle, whose boyfriend, Tom Sestak, won the Easton Holiday Committee's Imperial Illuminator Auction. Sestak won an auction to light the candle, but then turned over the honors to Lytle, "because he's a gentleman," said Sandy O'Brien Werner of the city's holiday committee. …
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Numerous events scheduled to kick off holidays in Easton.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Tom Coombe
-
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Easton's Peace Candle lighting is about more than just pushing a button. It's a big community event, drawing a giant crowd to Centre Square each year on the Friday night after Thanksgiving. And in the hours leading up to the lighting, people need things to do. They'll have plenty, including ice carvers from the Northampton Community College Culinary Arts Program, a Mummers band, and the Easton debut of TubaChristmas, which -- as the name implies -- features Christmas music played solely by tuba players. Here's the schedule of what will be happening Downtown Friday: Throughout the evening, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., you'll find other activities in the square, including horse-drawn carriage and tracklkess train rides, a moon bounce, a petting …
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The city's biggest holiday decoration due to be lit next week.
- LOCAL CONNECTIONS
- Tom Coombe
-
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Say goodbye to the monument in Easton's Centre Square, at least for the next few months. On Wednesday, the city is due to put up the Peace Candle, the giant annual holiday decoration that covers the monument. The candle is scheduled to be lit next Friday night, a ceremony that's one of Easton's biggest events of the year. It typically stays up from November until well after the New Year. Easton's began fundraising efforts earlier this year to replace the candle, a job expected to cost $25,000.
40.691364
-75.209065
Centre Square
South Third And Northampton streets, Easton, PA
/articles/easton-peace-candle-goes-up-wednesday
1975273
/locations/8135009
Thursday, August 23, 2012
City will begin fundraisers for a new version of its famous holiday decoration.
Easton's Peace Candle is a longtime holiday tradition, but there have been years where it didn't go up. One of those years was 1961. Instead of the candle, the city just hung decorations from the bugler at the top of the monument in Centre Square. "It was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen," said Mayor Sal Panto. The city might have been able to get away with not putting up the candle 50 years ago. But these days? "You'd be hung from the bugler, and it wouldn't be nice," Panto said at a news conference Tuesday at city hall. In order to keep 2012 from being another candle-less year, the city's holiday committee is launching a fundraiser to upgrade the giant holiday decoration. "We need a new candle," Panto told reporters. "We thought this one …
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Lawsuit prompted the creation of “expressway transitional zones” to provide designated space for the advertising signs.
A lawsuit by Adams Outdoor Sign Company has prompted Easton officials to propose changes to the city zoning map and create three "expressway transitional zones" that specifically allow for the placement of billboard advertising. "The bottom line is, [the city]...did not provide for any district for which this type of sign is allowed," city solicitor Joel Scheer told city council members during a hearing on the matter Wednesday evening. Being without a provision for billboard advertising on the city zoning maps not only leaves the city open to lawsuits, it give the city a lot less control over where such large signs should be placed, he said. "The courts have said, then they could place it anywhere," Scheer said. "We've reached an agreement…
40.69061
-75.20912
Easton City Hall
1 S 3rd St, Easton, PA
/articles/easton-zoning-changes-will-provide-for-billboards
873517
/locations/6594229
40.691051
-75.213042
501 Northampton St, Easton, PA
/articles/easton-zoning-changes-will-provide-for-billboards
/locations/6594230
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Crowd gathers in downtown Easton Friday night for the annual Peace Candle lighting.
A crowd converged on Centre Square Friday evening for the annual lighting of Easton's Peace Candle, a city tradition that turned 60 this year. The crowd sang “Happy Birthday” and cheers erupted as 7-year-old “Imperial Illuminator” Mary Elizabeth Soffera of Williams Township pulled the switch, lighting the largest non-wax candle in North America for the season. Mary Elizabeth, a young fan of the iconic holiday monument, has raised funds for the event independently over the last couple of years. She was granted the title by Ed Dietrich, who won the auction for the privilege on Wednesday, Nov. 23 for $400. Proceeds from the auction go to directly support the event, which also included music by the Easton Area High School Brass Ensemble, the …
40.691364
-75.209065
Centre Square
South Third And Northampton streets, Easton, PA
/articles/peace-candle-lights-centre-square-for-60th-year
1975273
/locations/5882473
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Easton's Peace Candle, the city's most visible holiday decoration, went up Tuesday morning.
- HOLIDAY GUIDE
- Tom Coombe
-
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
For the next few weeks, the Soldiers and Sailors monument in Easton's Centre Square will serve as the city's biggest holiday decoration. Public works employees put up the city's Peace Candle Tuesday morning. It will be lit next Friday night. This year will be the 60th year the candle -- which is over 100 feet tall -- has been illuminated.
40.691364
-75.209065
Centre Square
South Third And Northampton streets, Easton, PA
/articles/peace-candle-goes-up-in-easton-s-centre-square
1975273
/locations/5818255
Pirmigrin
5:26 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Ive loved the candle since I was a child (30 something years ago), also the candle lighting ceremony is one of the best events of the year in Easton!!!! more ›